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Monday, August 27, 2007

The Lions of Bordeaux...

The kingly lion is sitting right onBordeaux' coat of arms. As well as guarding so many entry ways of the finest chateaux..For example at Chateau Haut-Brion...Now here's a funny thing...Where I live, in Astoria, NY (just 9 minutes from Bloomingdales on the N train and the most multi-culti town in the USA)there is a profusion of stone LIONS!38th street is particularly littered with these stone lions!Only between Broadway and 34th Avenue, in case you should go looking for a pride or two...This has set me thinking...Have some Bordeauxoise winemakers moved to Astoria? ? ?Will we soon see some vineyards springing up on my turf?Did I mention that Bordeaux is also inundated with stone sphinxes? The French sphinx has a coiffed head and the bust of a young woman.Often she is wearing ear drops and pearls and her body is naturalistically rendered as a recumbent lion.Chateau Margaux has an impressive pair guarding their stairway entry.Chateaux de Malle makes a lovely Sauturnes, well protected bya brace of sphinx.

I'm wondering when, exactly an infusion of sphinxes are coming to Astoria?

Could they please come to my street?We could definitely use a few sphinxes on 31st Avenue :)

13 comments:

These are some fabulous paintings. I love paintings of cottages and castles and done in watercolor they are much more interesting. Love the Lions at the gates of the yards.. they may have small fronts but they seem mighty with the lions there. ;-) This was a fun post today.Cris in OR

I always loved the lions at the entry of the NY Public library. These are great. Maybe Astoria just has more francophiles than you realize, Carol! They just want reminders of Bordeaux...Yes, it is a fun post. Great sketches!

Beautiful paintings and some great lions!Which ruler wouldn't want to vest himself with the symbol of bravery, strength, ferocity, and valor? Stupid me who thought lions were so common only in Vienna, with the Habsburg's coat of arms showing a lion on a gold field (and that almost for a thousand years by now).I wonder what those sphinxes symbolize in the European context.

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♥carol gillott♥

Paris, Ile de France, France

I moved to Paris 2 years ago. I should have done it sooner but that's how the macaron crumbles. Living on the Ile Saint Louis next to the Seine after the 19eme is 'la cerise sur la gâteau'. It doesn't get any better. I've painted watercolors for Bocuse, Champagne Mumm, Guerlain, Frederick Cassel, The Russian Tearoom and the Maharana of Udaipur.
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